This invention relates to agricultural harvesting machinery, and more particularly to a harvesting system and finger attachment for the same, and a method of harvesting.
Harvesting machines of the type with which the present invention finds particular utility generally have a cutting assembly comprising a series of fixed fingers which extend forwardly from a cutting platform and are shaped to receive a transversely reciprocating knife therein rearwardly of their leading point.
To facilitate combing and subsequently capture of a crop, it has been known to attach an auxiliary finger attachment to the fixed fingers which essentially defines a leading horizontal platform. The platform provides an additional surface with which to capture shattered heads of the combed crop prior to delivery to the cutting platform and also heads having an unusually long stem which have a tendency to fall forwardly on cutting.
This arrangement has met with some success in overcoming the loss of grain attributable to head shattering and the cutting of long stems, but still has certain deficiencies in that incumbent ears or heads which locate on the platforms are no longer effectively induced towards the cutting platform and can easily fall to the ground over the sides of the platforms.
In machines which do not have the auxiliary finger attachment, it has been known to introduce an air flow across the cutting platform from a blower and pressurized air manifold to assist in the transport of cut crop to the feed conveyor of a harvester. These systems are generally characterized by discharging air through a series of outlet tubes which depend from the air manifold normally disposed in an elevated position relative to the cutting platform. The principal object of these systems has been to dispense with the usually requisite reel for "open" front machines or the flail for "closed" front machines. Although such systems have found favour amongst the farming community, it is common knowledge that they are limited in application to light crops alone, since a substantial amount of air pressure is required to induce heads forward of the cutting assembly into the air flow in much heavier crops. Thus in the heavier crops it is still necessary to use a reel or the like to direct the combed crop towards the cutting assembly and platform. Obviously, in systems having an elevated air manifold and depending discharge tubes, it is not possible to have a reel positioned on the header without first removing the air flow delivery apparatus. This can be both tedious and time consuming and hence is an obvious deficiency with previously proposed systems of this kind.
It is an object of the invention to provide means and a method which results in a reduction in the loss of grain experienced due to premature shattering of crop heads and the cutting of heads having long stems.
It is a preferred object of the present invention to allow the use of a reel, flail or the like together with an air flow system to facilitate harvesting.
It is another preferred object of the present invention to provide an air flow system which facilitates cleaning of the cutter bar assembly together with augmenting the gathering of the harvested crop.